News

OAK BROOK, Ill. — J.C. Penney has announced plans to donate a 5,500-sq.-ft. center in the North Riverside Park Mall in North Riverside, Ill., to assist efforts of the Cook County Regional Organized Crime Task Force in combating retail organized crime. 

The center will house law enforcement offices for various police departments, government agencies and retailers for the purpose of hands-on training and collaboration.

LOS ALTOS, Calif. — Catalog Spree, a personal digital mall that lets consumers browse and shop their favorite catalogs, has launched exclusive lookbooks for Fab, "The World's Design Store." The digital mall will publish Fab lookbooks daily, which consumers can view on iPad and iPhone.

DENVER — Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage is opening two new stores in August, as it looks to accelerate growth following last year's initial public offering.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Electrolux Major Appliances North America has named Daren Couture as SVP of end-to-end supply chain. Couture will oversee the company’s supply chain and nine manufacturing facilities in North America, including the newest cooking appliances facility located in Memphis, Tenn. 

The nation’s largest egg producer, Cal-Maine Foods, said it sold 243.3 million dozen eggs in its fourth quarter ended June 1, and moved closer to surpassing the 1 billion dozen threshold for the full fiscal year.

The 243.3 million dozen eggs sold in the fourth quarter was an increase of 6.3% from 228.8 million dozen sold in the fourth quarter the prior year. The full year total of 948.5 million dozen was a 7.3% increase from 884.3 million dozen the prior year.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid, the third-largest drug chain in the nation, is pursuing the lucrative senior market with its latest marketing campaign centered on its new extension to the Wellness+ loyalty card program.

New York — Nearly 70% (68%) of consumers plan to spend up to $500 this back-to-school shopping season compared with 63% in 2012 and 48% in 2011, according to a new spending forecast from e-commerce platform provider PriceGrabber.  Additionally, 17% of respondents plan to spend between $500 and $1,000, and 15% of shoppers said they have no back-to-school shopping budget this year. Conducted from June 17 to July 8, 2013, the survey includes responses from 2,191 U.S. online shopping consumers.

Halifax — Walmart Canada on Friday opened its first supercenter in Atlantic Canada, in the Halifax Shopping Centre Annex in Halifax.

The store is one of 37 supercenter projects planned for the company's current fiscal year, which ends January 31, 2014. The projects, which were announced earlier this year, include building new stores and expanding, remodelling or relocating existing stores and represent an investment of more than $450 million in the Canadian economy.

Chicago — Pure-play e-tailers are doing a better job in satisfying their customers overall than omnichannel retailers, but omnichannel retailers have an edge in select functional areas like checkout. According to results of the mid-year Customer Feedback Index (CFI) from OpinionLab, e-tailers had an average CFI score of 481, compared with a CFI average of 457 for omnichannel retailers.

Canton, Mass. — Dunkin’ Brands Group, parent of Dunkin’ Donuts, beat Wall Street expectations by more than doubling its second-quarter profit. The company reported a profit of $40.8 million for the period ended June 29, up from $18.5 million a year ago. The year-earlier period included a $20.7 million increase in a litigation reserve.

Revenue increased 5.9% to $182.5 million from $172.4 million. U.S. same-store sales rose 4% at Dunkin' Donuts shops and improved 1.6% at Baskin-Robbins shops.